The HR Agendaaccepts articles on a wide range of HR topics, from industry professionals, researchers, freelancers, students, and company employees.

While unsolicited submissions are welcome, we would encourage you to get in touch with us first, to discuss our preferred article topics for upcoming issues based on our editorial calendar.

What we are looking for

All submissions (in English and/or Japanese), regardless of the type of article, must be original pieces, either previously unpublished, or works to which the submitter holds full copy and distribution rights.

Please ensure your piece has been fact-checked for accuracy and that all statistics, figures, and claims can be well backed up or substantiated.

We cannot accept materials that have been plagiarized, or copied from other sources, in whole or in part.

Articles that make use of publicly edited sources (such as Wikipedia) will not be accepted.

The HR Agenda is a professional trade magazine rather than a peer-reviewed journal, so please write in a style that will appeal to a broad audience.

Specialist terms or concepts may need to be explained, and bear in mind that all articles will also need to be translated into Japanese (or English) by our translation team.

Also, please keep in mind that our target audience primarily consists of Japan-focused HR professionals and business executives doing business in Japan. As such, it will be most helpful if your article directly addresses topics and issues that are somehow Japan-related.

Whenever possible, case studies, statistics, and examples should be Japan-focused.

Editorial process

If your article is accepted for publication, please be prepared to engage in a collaborative editing process with the The HR Agenda team for the duration of the run-up to publication, which may be up to two months.

Partial re-writes or heavy edits may be requested during that time in order to make the piece meet our highest level of journalistic integrity.

Other important things to note

Please include a head shot photo with your article, along with a 2-sentence professional biography or summary of your other work. This will be included at the end of your article.

All submissions must be made electronically, by email to: editor-in-chief@jhrs.org and must include your name and contact information (the latter will not be published).

Pseudonyms, pen names, or nom de plume are generally not accepted.

The HR Agenda does not offer monetary remuneration for articles, however, digital (and if applicable, printed) copies in which your article is published will be made available to you at no cost.

The HR Agenda holds the absolute right and discretion to reject, publish, withdraw, suspend, and even unpublish any submitted articles if they are found even at a later date to be significantly inaccurate, a plagiarized article, violating intellectual property rights or copyrights, or falls short of our editorial standards.

Requests for withdrawal of articles submitted/published should be made in writing stating the exact article name and date of publication accompanied with reasons of the withdrawal request. The HR Agenda will earnestly consider all requests for withdrawal but the final decision to grant or deny such requests shall solely rest on The HR Agenda. All decisions made by The HR Agenda on this matter is deemed final and executory.

*Note: The above guidelines may be revised/updated without prior notice.